


Running out of Time

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M, Sadstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-27
Updated: 2012-04-27
Packaged: 2017-11-04 09:37:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/392381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, when he can’t sleep at night, he holds his watch up to his ear and lets the ticking soothe him into dreamless sleep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Running out of Time

Sometimes, when he can’t sleep at night, he holds his watch up to his ear and lets the ticking soothe him into dreamless sleep.

John has a few things of Dave’s, some of which have somehow retained wisps of his scent. But this - the sound of time passing by - made him feel closer than any tangible item. It had spoken to Dave as much as the wind still spoke to him, ready and waiting to be reshaped to his will.

Things had been going so well. Every time he thought about it he choked, bile rising in his throat. PTSD was a very real thing for all of them, and they only had each other to talk to; no one else knew what they had done, what they had sacrificed, to restore the world. Looking at it all, the violence and hate, the corruption and despair, John wasn’t sure if the payment was worth it.

The memory always starts the same way. The battle is drawing to a close. With the powers of space and time and foresight on their side, things are going so damn well. 

Then John messes up.

He lets his guard down, the premature elation of victory making him take stupid risks. Rose is busy fighting for her life against a group of drones - that seems to be all they’re doing, even now, in the present, though it’s memories now, memories like this that threaten to tear them apart - and has no time to call out a warning. Jade is in the same situation. Only Dave can stop the blow that was coming, and he does what any knight would, what any friend would - he disregards his own safety and throws himself between John and danger.

It always happens in slow motion. The trident, Dave’s body colliding with his own, warm blood - red as his eyes, red as his clothes - spraying everywhere. There’s shouting, and finally (too little too late) the battle is won. Rose hangs back for a moment to make sure that they won’t be interrupted by an enemy who is just playing dead rather than being dead, but John is at his best bro’s side before the Condesce even hits the ground. Her trident rings eerily in the silence as it falls beside her.

Dave laughs shakily as John props him up to hold him in his arms, frantically casting around for something to stem the flow of blood before using his blue hood. It does nothing except cause Dave to bite off a choked scream of pain, but he refuses to give up. But Dave, damn him, can’t stop talking even with three holes in his chest and blood pouring into his lungs.

“Damn,” he gurgles. His eyes are uncovered, his trademark shades lost somewhere along the line.

“Shut up!” God, John will never forgive himself for being so cross during Dave’s last minutes. The Knight just laughs again, though it causes his entire body to spasm, blood foaming out of his chest and mouth. “Just … shut up. It’ll be over soon, then we can go home!”

“Yeah. It’ll be over soon.” And Dave sounds so tired, he looks so tired - how much longer did he spend in the battle than the rest of them, turning back time whenever one of them was killed? - that John can’t help but run a thumb under his sleep-deprived eyes. Dave lets out a low sound that almost sounds like a whimper, eyes sliding shut, and it hits John that if this game had never been started they would just be getting their driver’s permits. He must have said it out loud, because Dave gives him a strained smile.

“Guess we’re not gonna have that epic shitty movie marathon after all.” Now John can feel something warm and wet on his face, but that can’t be right - any blood that was sprayed on his during the battle would have long since cooled, and he had not head wounds - and it’s only when clear drops drip onto Dave’s face that he realizes that he’s crying.

“Figures you’d take a hit to the chest to get out of it,” he jokes, but as soon as it’s out of his mouth he realizes how stupid it is to joke about the end. The end of Dave’s life, of their time together. Dave is laughing though - genuine and remarkably happy for someone drowning in their own blood - and John can’t help but smile through the tears.

The girls are there, then, hovering for a moment before Rose surprises them all by throwing herself on her brother. They share a silent moment like that, neither minding the discomfort or blood, before Rose places a kiss on his forehead and draws back, and it’s Jade’s turn.

The Witch of Space is crying freely, but it’s clear that she still hasn’t given up hope until she sees the wound up close and personal. She gives out a sob and kneels by him, hugging his head as she avoids the gaping holes in his chest. Like Rose, she kisses him before she stands back up, though on his cheek. They hug a few feet away, Rose sombrely looking on as Jade buries her head in her chest despite the gore there from hugging Dave. Then it’s just the two of them again.

“Figures,” Dave says. His tone is still too conversational for someone who is dying, and just the thought of it has John cringing and clinging to him even harder, as if that could stop life from leaving his body. But still he humours him by asking what he means. “Knight of gogdamn Time, man. And I’m the one who runs out of it.” But he doesn’t sound bitter about it, just … resigned. Like someone much older. Someone who had had a chance to live a life. He grins and gestures him closer; John hurriedly obliges, but is nowhere near prepared for Dave grabbing him by the back of his head in a final show of strength and pressing their lips together. Then, as John pulls away, he takes in one final, shuddery breath, and rasps out something that is drowned out by John shaking him and screaming at him not to go, to stay, it will heal soon, there’s no way that was heroic it was just fucking stupid and reckless - but he’s gone.

He’s gone, and it’s all John’s fault.

The girls politely look away. The world is too bright, too red, red like Dave’s eyes. The dams loose and John sobs, clinging to Dave’s cooling body, shaking so badly that he thinks for a second that Dave is still moving.

After a while - who knows how long - John silently gets to his feet and looks around. It only takes him a moment to find them, miraculously intact, standing partially upright. Gripping the aviators he had given to Dave so long ago tight to his chest he refuses to look back on the fallen hero. He already had too many memories of Dave dead and dying to last him a lifetime.

Those shades were one of the things that sat beside his bed on the nightstand. They belonged to someone who, by all records, had gone missing one day from his Texas apartment without a trace. Bro was alone there, now. He had returned when they stepped through the door, along with Rose’s mother and John’s father and even Jade’s dog. Everyone had come back except Dave.

He missed his Knight. And as much as it shocked him, he would give up their reconstructed universe for just a moment more to hold him. Just a moment more.


End file.
